Eating food with one’s hands is a cultural attribute that can be seen in some parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Though eating with the hands may seem uncivilized, several well renowned chefs are starting to encourage this table manner. They believe that hand-to-mouth eating can allow people to feel closer to one another and ease the rather uncomfortable mood of fancy restaurants.
The biggest reason that people disapprove of eating with their hands is because they think it’s unsanitary. This is usually why parents scold their toddlers for not using utensils and picking up food with their hands. However, the people of India have the exact opposite point of view. They think that using their hands is actually cleaner than using utensils. A great majority of Indians believe in Hinduism, and Hindus have the utmost dislike for objects that have been in contact with saliva, and consider that object to be infected, or contaminated. For this reason, they don’t like using utensils such as spoons and forks. They would rather eat with their hands than eat with objects that have been “contaminated” with other peoples’ saliva. This way of thinking also leads Hindus to use a personal plate when having a meal. Food is presented in a large bowl, and each person uses a common spoon to scoop their own portions. Moreover, while most Koreans tend to enjoy having a conversation while eating, Indians think it rude to speak when having a meal since spit could spatter over the food.

Indians say that they enjoy three different tastes when eating food. First they enjoy the food with their nose, secondly with their hands, and lastly with their mouths. The act of feeling food with one’s hands might sound strange, but countless senses exist in one’s hands, so it would not be a stretch to say that feeling food is just another way of enjoying it. From the numerous ways that Indians “taste” their food, it is clear that they want to enjoy it just as it is, and this is another reason why Indians practice hand-to-mouth eating. When we pick up food with utensils, we can feel the cool, peculiar taste of metal but the people from India just want to taste the food itself.
Eating with your hands doesn’t necessarily mean grabbing at your food any way you want. There are steps that you should follow even when eating with your hands. First, washing your hands is imperative. Most Indian restaurants have a sink for their customers. Also, you should not use your left hand, as that hand is used for other uncleanly acts. So with your right index, middle, and ring finger put together, scoop up the rice and push the food into your mouth with your thumb.
Roy Choi, a Korean-American chef who became famous with his Korean tacos and Kalbi, said that he cannot stand seeing his customers cutting away at their Kalbi as if it is a steak. The fun part about eating Kalbi is that you can hold it in your hands and rip off the meat from the bones. Bothered by the method in which his customers were eating Kalbi, Choi decided to leave utensils as an option. The waiters at his restaurant recommend customers to eat with their hands when it comes to certain dishes. Not only Choi, but Marcus Samuelsson, a renowned chef from New York, once prepared a traditional hand-to-mouth Indian menu for an Indian prime minister who was to visit the White House. Normally, all sorts of fancy utensils would be used at such an official meeting, so this sort of menu was unexpected. Even so, Samuelsson felt that eating food in this sort of manner would help foster a comfortable mood. He also feels that in the future, more high-quality restaurants will begin to include menus that should be eaten by hand.
It may look a bit uncivilized to eat using one’s hands, but when tradition and origin are taken into account, we can realize that hand-to-mouth eating originated for sanitary reasons. Of course nowadays, sanitary conditions have improved and various infectious diseases can be taken care of. So Indians do not object to using utensils as before. However, eating food with your hands has become a recent trend. So perhaps you should keep in mind how to eat with your hands just in case.